December 2010 Archives

Challenge: The AHC Learning Commons was asked to provide an engaging, youth-oriented website in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health and the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. The goal of the site would be to give information to junior high and high school students on dental careers and how to pursue them, especially targeting those among underserved populations so that they can get training and better their own communities.

Solution: The site that we developed uses various interactions and media that are both fun and informative, including interactive patient scenarios, day-in-the-life videos of professionals, and a GPS-like career roadmap. With the widespread usage of mobile devices by our audience, we also developed a mobile version of the content. The end result is engaging and useful.

Impact: With the new site, our target audience of junior high and high school students in Minnesota and beyond can quickly get information on dental professions. One way that they will be exposed to this content is through an existing program at the University of Minnesota, where college students give information on these careers to this audience. The site helps them not only gain a better understanding of what each profession entails, but also points them to resources now and into the future that can help them succeed in pursuing their career.

The Learning Commons group has developed a guide for converting a course from WebVista to Moodle. This guide is designed to help you convert online course content from the existing WebVista course management system (CMS) to the Moodle CMS.

WebVista and Moodle offer a variety of similar tools for creating and delivering course content, but the two course management systems also differ. Understanding the differences will help you plan and execute successful course conversions.
These guidelines are organized in three parts to help you orient to Moodle, plan your strategies for converting from WebVista to Moodle, and complete the conversion, possibly in collaboration with a Web developer.